Wisconsin Oven offers high-quality heat-treat ovens and furnaces, with standard temperature ratings of 500°F, 650°F, 800°F, 1000°F, 1250°F and 1400°F. They can be heated by gas (direct or indirect), electric and steam. Typical applications include aging, tempering, annealing, stress relieving and solution heat treating.

Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems designs, manufactures and services a full line of thermal-processing equipment for virtually any process. Gasbarre’s offering includes: continuous and batch atmosphere equipment that serve customers in the automotive, aerospace, industrial equipment, energy and commercial heat-treating industries; and continuous and batch vacuum furnace systems that serve a wide range of thermal-processing applications and can be adapted to nearly any production process.

Established in 1964, CAN-ENG has grown to become a leading global designer and manufacturer of thermal-processing equipment for ferrous and nonferrous metals. For almost 60 years, CAN-ENG’s furnace designs have served commercial and captive heat treaters.

Abbott Furnace and ExOne, a provider of 3D-printing systems, are collaborating on the use of continuous furnaces for sintering of aluminum and high-volume binder-jet applications. ExOne announced in March that it had begun successfully binder-jet printing and sintering 6061 aluminum. While most binder-jet 3D printers sold today are paired with a batch sintering furnace, ExOne found – with Abbott’s assistance – that Al 6061 preferred a continuous furnace that would be advantageous in high-volume production.

At the time that I started working on the background for this article, I thought, “I wonder what Wikipedia says about steam?” According to Wikipedia, steam is water in the gas phase commonly formed by boiling or evaporating water. Steam and the steam engine played a central role in the Industrial Revolution, with the modern steam engines generating more than 80% of the world’s electricity.